Tom Fuller Band: Ask

Every now and again and album from an artist that you've never heard of comes out of nowhere and knocks you for six – and so it is with the Tom Fuller Band and their third album Ask. Sitting in the box clearly marked "Commercial Rock", Fuller and his band mates, including Abe Laboriel Jr., and Brian Ray who have both worked with Paul McCartney, have put together an album crammed with catchy hooks, smart commercial riffs and fat choruses. The end result is an disc that veers from style to style, while definitely still coming together as a cohesive album, with everyone from (unsurprisingly given his band mates) The Beatles and Wings, to Cheap Trick and The Stereophonics coming to mind.

Built on the principle of a song with a mighty riff and a cracking chorus won't go far wrong, Ask very quickly becomes and joyous companion that takes up residence in your mind, insisting that you blurt out chorus lines at the most inopportune moments. For proof stick on the ultimate gang sing along of "Doin' Nuthin'" and if you're not at least humming along after the second run through of the chorus, then call the doctor and ask him to check for a pulse. Like most of this album, it is a song with tight arrangements which release new snippets with each listen, ensuring that this is not an album in any danger of going stale. Tracks like the thumping "Lovers", the watered down Wildhearts of "Morphine Maureen" and the more restrained, "Merci Beaucoup", emphasise the point that Fuller has the potential to make the cross over into chart territory, while hugely satisfying the rock brigade.

With all the songs on the album, there's an argument that Fuller may have more than an eye on commercial success and in truth this is the sort of rock music that the mainstream would lap up, but don't take that to mean that this is lightweight, or throwaway, as that would be well wide of the mark. Instead Tom Fuller Band have taken some of the more commercial aspects of 70's, 80's and even a little '60's rock music and written songs that hit home each and every time. In a just world Ask would make Tom Fuller a household name, in the mean time do yourself a favour and don't let this little cracker of an album pass you by.

Track Listing
1. Lovers
2. Ask
3. Doin' Nuthin'
4. Take Me Away
5. Anthem Man
6. Hellfire Angel
7. Merci Beaucoup
8. Keeping Time
9. Morphine Maureen
10. Hot Air Balloon
11. The Best Of Me
12. Garden Dreaming Days

Added: December 26th 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Tom Fuller Band online
Hits: 1300
Language: english

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